Episode 537 Scott Adams: Iran, Socialism, Bad Candidates, North Korea, Viewer Questions

Date: 2019-05-22 | Duration: 51:31

Topics

North Korea calls Joe Biden a “fool of low IQ” Israel is naming things after our American President ALL countries have an interest in our elections and the outcomes Chinese Ambassador, trying to explain away Huawei issues Chinese “job training centers” OR concentration camps OR fake news Iran sanctions have been increased to penalize countries aiding them Unprecedented clarity, determination from President Trump Border situation deteriorating…and almost no news reports on it? Is that because it’s now agreed by both sides…it’s a crisis? Beto pushing hard for impeachment Kamala as a candidate…where is her appeal? Awkward appearances, boring, nothing interesting to say Joe Biden is an early beta version…of President Trump Take away all of President Trump’s strengths…Joe Biden Where’s media attention for leading Democrat candidate? Gorsuch and Kavanaugh…NOT ruling politically as feared “40% of Americans favor socialism”…is phony It’s a dispute over the definition of words, nothing more Venezuela’s issues, root cause of their problems Socialism did NOT destroy Venezuela A dictator and massive corruption destroyed Venezuela Questions from the viewers Healthcare costs Rural area issues and possible solutions

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> [!note] Rough Transcript
> 
> This is an auto-generated transcript and may contain errors.

## Transcript

[0:09]

oh hey everybody hey Jimmy pants five come on in here super comic-con drew sides Dam X lied Chris Whittle it's good to see all of you and I know why you're here probably for the coffee possibly with a simultaneous simultaneous up let's get right to it let's grab your copier bug your glass your Stein your tankard your chalice your thermos your flask fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the simultaneous scent
it's good sipping so I'm gonna take some lips take some calls at the end of some comments here so if you have some questions you might want to be thinking about I'll take questions on anything today yeah anything at all so let's talk about what's new so it turns out that North

[1:12]

what's new so it turns out that North Korea is trying to interfere with American elections here's my question to you what country is not interfering with American elections quick name a country that's not interfering with American elections I mean North Korea clearly has they just made some comments about Joe Biden Israel obviously has their naming stuff after Trump I mean when Israel starts naming things in Israel after your president they kind of want that guy to get reelected or that that woman depending on the time so Venezuela is affecting US elections probably more than any other country and they're not even trying simply by being Venezuela Venezuela just sits there being Venezuela that's probably gonna have more impact on her than Facebook just by this example what

[2:16]

than Facebook just by this example what about China China's definitely interfering with our election they might not be trying to do it but everything about how they act is having their elections so I'm starting to think maybe we should just get rid of this fiction without other countries interfering with your elections and just embrace the fact that all of our elections are International Affairs happen now I'm not completely serious but the point is you can't really turn off the impact from other countries yes maybe maybe not in Slovenia as somebody's in here but the big countries let's talk about another big country Iran oh let's talk about China first so I was watching the I think he was the Chinese ambassador being interviewed on I forget which network and the Chinese ambassador was answering questions about you know

[3:17]

answering questions about you know potential bad actions by China and I've never seen a worse ambassador how in the world does that guy keep his job he was just the worst if you ever get a chance to see the Chinese ambassador to the United States on TV you have to watch it just to watch how bad he is now a question I have is whether all I'm saying is some kind of a social cultural difference because the way he answers questions looks exactly like he's lying and by Mike intentionally away from my face but somebody's saying I should do it closer so and specifically he was of that he was asked about hallway if I'm pronouncing it correctly the Chinese telecom company that the u.s. is saying if you install their equipment they'll spy on all your traffic and listening to

[4:19]

spy on all your traffic and listening to the Chinese ambassador try to try to explain that way it really looked like he was confirming everything that the everything about them because his denial was so transparently wrong for Western ears that I wondered what I was even listening to and so here's my question was it a cultural difference because if you ask a somebody from the United States hey is your company putting spy equipment in all of your telecommunications here if you ask somebody from America they will say no that's not happening that's a ridiculous rumor here's probably why how it got started but no there's no there's no proof to that no there's no evidence of that and by the way you know why we invite the inspectors could come in and look at our

[5:19]

inspectors could come in and look at our chips and you could just tell so the American wouldn't answer it that way they would go they would go write up the facts the Chinese ambassador simply sort of changed the subject and I'm thinking to myself okay do you even know what country you're in if you're in the United States and somebody says did you murder that person and you say when we could talk about murder but maybe we should talk about the weather why is nobody talking about the weather why do so everybody have to talk about the murder where do we talk about the weather if you say that in America a hundred percent of Americans say oh okay you're guilty obviously you're guilty you didn't even answer the question you just changed the subject and here's this Chinese ambassador who apparently knows nothing about America how the hell did he get his job done I'm serious you're probably the least qualified looking person I've ever seen in such a high profile job he acted like he didn't know how Americans

[6:20]

acted like he didn't know how Americans work he answers the question in a way so damning and so confirming of how always inappropriateness in our networks that I thought how does he even stay alive I mean it seems like he'd be sent to one of those concentration yes and then and then he was asked about the the weaker concentration camps at least they're being called that and he actually with a straight face look what then you know looked at the interviewer and said no those are just job education places everybody they can come and go doors are open we don't even have a lock on the gate you could just walk in there get some training and of course we want them to be trained so they can be productive citizens why wouldn't we want them trained why wouldn't they want to be treated now I'm paraphrasing he didn't say it that way but it was one of those

[7:21]

that way but it was one of those jaw-dropping things where I said to myself and I'm gonna be Ferrier Western media is so unreliable that it is possible I'm not ruling it out it's possible that they're actually through job training centers now I always think that's true it seems to me we probably have a pretty good idea what's going on over there and it seems it seems to me that they're probably just as bad as it sounds there probably concentration camps I'd imagine that's true because we've seen interviews with a family member of lost family members and obviously they can't go visit them so it seems to me like the most obvious lie I've ever seen and so this guy goes on American TV again does he even know what countries and does the ambassador to the United States from China know what

[8:23]

United States from China know what country he's in because he looks at it goes no that's just job training places and I'm thinking I think I'm looking at Hitler so this Chinese ambassador made me think instead of thinking I you know I thought he would have answered the question about the weaker concentration camps I thought he was going to come up with something better you know at least a lie that sounds a like there's some gray area like maybe he better said oh yes it is they are detained there but they've all committed some kind of a crime we're trying to rehabilitate then I was gonna say that's evil enough you know I wasn't gonna think that that was good enough as still as the concentration yep but I thought they put at least some kind of spin on it to make some kind of attempt to make you sound like there was some reason why maybe the coverage of it was not quite accurate it didn't really it was a good

[9:25]

accurate it didn't really it was a good idea I thought they would at least take a run at it and he looks right at the interviewer says there's just job training places you know of course it's all voluntary and I just thought that guy needs to be I don't executed what because what he was talking about was a a concentration camp and he just lied to the world about its existence now I suppose that parts of his job but really China you couldn't come up with a better cover story then then then that was pretty pathetic alright enough about that I'm just quite seriously I don't know how he keeps his job he could not have been a worse at spokesperson for China what I do I do appreciate that he's so bad at life that he doesn't leave any question about the facts he confirmed every bad thing about China

[10:26]

confirmed every bad thing about China without trying I thought it was the worst anyway I read about so as you all know President Trump has increased the sanctions on Iran I did not realize how effectively he had increased the sanctions on Iran listen to this I just found out this today that's so so this month the administration tightened up the the the sanctions so that even if you were a country we like and you were dealing with around you would give sanction to I guess so we were trying to stop anybody buying Iranian oil now when you hear that you say to yourself yeah yeah yeah we have a bunch of sanctions but then everybody finds a way to work around them so when if you're like me when you heard we were putting more sanctions on Iranian oil sales didn't you say to yourselves yeah that'll hurt them 10%

[11:27]

yourselves yeah that'll hurt them 10% didn't didn't you think it was something like that yeah that'll squeeze them a little bit maybe 20% turns out this since the sanctions got tightened zero ships have been leaving Iran's oil terminals for foreign ports zero we actually closed down their their tankers that were selling oil to other countries to zero pattern or that'll last but it certainly tells you that the RAM needs to do something and do something quickly because the government is falling apart now I love and again I'm going to say historians will look back at this administration as the model for how to do things even though in our current moment anything President Trump does gets you know tons of criticism because that's the world we live in but historians will not have to deal with that you know the the politics of the

[12:29]

that you know the the politics of the time they'll be able to look at it yeah in the rearview mirror and just say whether something was good or bad if it worked or if it didn't and I think Trump's policy on Iran is going to be one of those lasting good examples now of course we don't know how it all turn out but the way he's setting it up is the cleanest thing I've seen so far here's what he used to be the way we used to treat Iran is if you do things we don't like which we know you're doing and you're always doing and you keep doing we're going to do things that you don't like so that that was the old proposition if you do things we don't like in a variety of different ways we will do things you don't like in a variety of ways and what did that get us Iran do a variety of things we don't like and then we would do a variety of things they don't like and nothing really changed trump has clarified this situation as I understand that the

[13:32]

situation as I understand that the proposition is your economy will be completely obliterated because that's what it means when zero tankers leave your ports if you can't give a single oil tanker out of your port you're looking at the end of your economy the alternative is you saw Iran try to gain the system a little bit maybe put some missiles on ships put a little military risk into the equation muddy it up a little bit what was Trump's response to Iran muddying up this very clean situation the clean situation was do what we want or we will completely annihilate your economy we won't we won't damage it we won't take it down 10%
10% we won't impede it we will eliminate it we will eliminate your economy that's the trunk proposition so they try to add some variables with the military stuff

[14:34]

some variables with the military stuff for distrub do you brings the whole frickin or Matta I mean not an entire tomada but he brings enough firepower to turn the entire nation of Iran into a burnin super cinder because they loaded some missiles on ships apparently and that he's going further and he says that any actions against our interests and I'm not sure if that applies to say here's the Israel or not probably that would be not what's on the table but president said very clearly that any military action against our assets would be the complete elimination of her and Iran would cease to exist as a country do you think he means it I do I think he actually completely means that I mean in what he says obliteration of Iran we're not talking about the people or the physical country but rather the the leadership I'm pretty sure the the military that's

[15:38]

I'm pretty sure the the military that's close to the regime would be completely eliminated and I'm pretty sure that the regime itself would be completely eliminated so think of the clarity of the current situation the clarity of the situation is that the Iranian people have now three options number one is to go along with whatever peace plan gets revealed I think in June they're going on
on unveil the administration's peace plan so option one is to go along with some kind of a peace plan which is the last thing I want to do because I'm sure that involves not funding their proxies and really not doing any of the things they're doing probably means some retreating from territory it's probably a lot of stuff they don't want to do option to have their economy completely destroyed completely destroyed option three have their country in terms of the ruler ruling class of the country

[16:40]

ruler ruling class of the country completely destroyed three options complete destruction of your of your leadership as in debt complete destruction of your economy as in we're not just taking them 10% you just won't have money the economy will just be gone or three play along with some kind of a peace deal that probably would be good for everybody now if you the only way you could ever imagine that Iran would agree to anything would be with this level of clarity anything short of the level of clarity I just described and I think is being being just as clear to the Iranians I think that that's our best possible situation now I see somebody saying you are not being realistic I'm not telling you that the peace plan is going to succeed that would be kind of unrealistic I am telling you that the

[17:41]

of unrealistic I am telling you that the clarity of the way in which we're dealing with the rat is unprecedented we've never had this kind of clarity and clarity goes a long way for this stuff the best thing you can do is find some clarity and Trump has definitely kind of it so this is why I think that Trump will be seen as the as the model for how to do this stuff in the future because of the clarity of it completely black and white all right I've got something else why is it that we're not seeing as many images from the border have you noticed that we keep hearing about the immigration problem getting worse and worse worse and worse but I will see that many pictures anymore it seems as though the news and maybe both sides of news are downplaying the border stuff why is it now it could be because it became bipartisan it's a weird way the border

[18:45]

bipartisan it's a weird way the border problem started as you know the Democrats said well it's not that much of a problem it's not that much of a problem so let it you know just let it go the way it is and then the Republicans say it's a big problem but now it's obvious that it's a big problem to everybody and so under those conditions it feels like maybe the news doesn't need to cover it so much because we don't know what to do except we need to do something better and so that's that's our situation so I think it's just less than news because the Democrats don't have anything to complain about and the Trump administration's
the Trump administration is all right I'm just looking at all your comments about my microphone let me tell you that I'm not going to change it so it is what it is if it doesn't work it doesn't work so you don't need to tell me I saw that

[19:48]

so you don't need to tell me I saw that you know is Beto is going hard for impeachment it's going hard for impeachment and I was watching him and I thought he he doesn't even seem close to being a viable candidate doesn't even seem close and I'm also going to officially revise my prediction are you ready so I had a prediction months ago about maybe six months ago that Harris Campbell Harris was the strongest candidate for the Dems and the she was the most likely to be a risk to trump I have never watched Carla Harris in action I have seen her proposals I have watched her interact on camera she is one of just about the worst candidates I've ever seen how in

[20:51]

worst candidates I've ever seen how in the world did she even get elected senator
am I wrong she seems awkward she seems uncomfortable in her own skin she's got policies that only sound crazy and impractical and she has added nothing interesting she's boring and terrible at the same time and that for a long time I thought she was their best hope and so I'm starting to understand why the Democrats are pushing Biden who on paper seems like the least likely person who could beat Trump this is my opinion not anybody else's opinion in my opinion is a terrible match up with Trump because he's if you take you start with Trump all of his good points and you remove all the good things from Trump oh he's brave you know you'll do things other people won't do he's unpredictable he's you know he's

[21:52]

unpredictable he's you know he's interesting he's funny he's provocative he knows how to use social media you know if you just start with Trump and one by one you pick off all of the qualities that are good about him and just remove them from Trump what's left is binding by those like the frame that you build the Trump on Biden is the the boring you know the boring nothing they could not be a worse match up and I'm not I don't think that I'm exaggerating right now when I tell you that it seems to be some kind of a strategy by the press to give Biden less time to talk on television am I wrong because it seems to me that Biden would be doing TV interviews just every day like every day there'd be a sit-down a one-on-one because you could get all kinds of attention doing that way doing that and Biden is in a campaign why

[22:53]

that and Biden is in a campaign why would he not want more attention I'll tell you why I'm pretty sure that the press is figured out that the more we hear from Biden the less we like him the more he talks the worse he is so I don't think the president has anything that looks like a threat out of the entire field unless there's somebody who emerges who has not yet emerged so I would say I would rule out with a judge ruling been a rule out Harris the Biden might get the nomination because somebody's got to get the nomination but he's certainly not competitive with Trump unless something really big changes between now and then so who's left I've already sort of run in names of people who are serious looking at least and I don't think so I don't know we may see somebody who's lower in the

[23:56]

we may see somebody who's lower in the pack and lower than 2% of approval who might rise but the slaughter meter is at 114 percent alright Gorsuch and Kavanagh there's a story on the Fox News about how their votes have been more independent than people thought so here's a little surprise for you it turns out that Gorsuch and cabin on both what we assumed would be fair very conservative judges who would side with the Conservatives apparently happened at least on small stop when I say when I say small stuff I mean the Supreme Court is continually dealing with issues that you and I never hear about you know stuff about Indian or Native American tribes and stuff like that but apparently or such and Cavanagh I have putted on different signs on several issues so they are less predictable than that we imagine yeah I

[24:58]

predictable than that we imagine yeah I see to last about Tulsi Gabbard and and yang Amy Klobuchar Klobuchar just doesn't have the personality yang is interesting but he's a bit of a technician in other words he's got tons of policies and almost all of them sound interesting if you were going to have a conversation you know sit down and have coffee with one of the kid Bates yeah it might be the most interesting one maybe blue to judge Buda Gentry would be pretty interesting but if you had to sit down actually spend some time if you had to spend an hour with one of the candidates would you spend time with well I could talk all day with ya like I mean I could just talk all day with that guy because he's got all kinds of interesting ideas they may be good they may be bad but that's just like my ideas he has lots of them and Budaj edge would probably be interesting just because he's so smart and it looks like you'd be funny but I can't imagine spending an

[26:01]

funny but I can't imagine spending an hour with Ben ever can you could you imagine spending an hour just you at lunch and it's just the one candidate on the other side of the table and you have to spend an hour just making conversation could you make an hour of conversation with bet oh that would be painful but Klobuchar I don't know if I could spend time with them anyway they've got a real charisma gap on that son all right
at 4 and 10 Americans like some form of socialism uh your hair's on fire for an attack America is like some form of socialism what does it all mean what's this at all mean nothing nothing at all this whole socialism versus ánotá socialism is the biggest phony the the whole conversation is phony because it's

[27:02]

whole conversation is phony because it's all about definitions of a word it's not about it's not about a content it's about what words mean so when people say that so when the poll says that four out of ten Americans like some form of socialism all they're saying is that they like things the way they are because the way things are is we have some formulas other suppose we've got Social Security Medicare stuff like that so should we be surprised that a system that's working pretty well before an attendant like it it doesn't mean they think it just means they have a different definitions of what the word means and others now when I hear the anti-socialist argue against socialism I always I have the same reaction which is I'm sure there's a good argument against socialism I'm sure that exists because

[28:07]

socialism I'm sure that exists because socialism has never worked and capitalism has worked very well so I'm sure that somebody can come up with a persuasive sounding argument against socialism but I haven't heard it and again let me be very clear I think socialism is a big mistake well why can't anybody make a convincing argument against it what's up with that well part of the reason is socialism isn't one thing it's sort of like finding a cure for cancer remember when you were a kid those of you were older you thought well I hope science comes up with a cure for cancer the reason this I can't come up with a cure for cancer is it cancer isn't one thing it's like hundreds or thousands of things that they just put in this label so even if you could cure one kind and we're pretty good at treating specific kinds of cancers now it doesn't look you're a cancer because it's just as one little

[29:07]

cancer because it's just as one little thing so socialism is like that there are all kinds of different ways you can do it so if you say socialism is good or bad you're not really saying anything so whoever is arguing socialism as good as say not whoever says socialism is bad is saying nothing it's a conversation between two nothing's that's why right neither side is persuasive because it's a nothing arguing against of nothing if you can't define exactly what socialism is you can't really compare it to anything it's a nothing prepared to or nothing and yet we get all work nothing but oh this is nothing is much better than this other nothing that I haven't designed didn't could be anything so the best I've heard is when people say hey when you consolidate power when you consolidate power you get every bad thing that human beings do when they had

[30:08]

thing that human beings do when they had too much power this sounds reasonable right if you consolidate power then whoever's the boss of whatever that power structure is has too much power and then would people have too much power you don't have competition and there's corruption but do we see that with Medicare do you see a lot of headlines that say Medicare as as resulted in what are people pretty happy with it what's the biggest problem with Social Security well it's hard to pay for but we seem to a finger to damned so far so where is the where is the Social Security corruption that's destroying the country if you're gonna make your argument against socialism and it's about centralizing power corrupts things you'd better give me some examples of American centralist Bowery their corrupted did it Medicare become corrupt the Social

[31:08]

Medicare become corrupt the Social Security become corrupt I mean there's a math problem of that who pays for it and if you have enough young people to pay from the old people and those are real problems but they have nothing to do with socialism versus capitalism they are simply sort of functional detail problems the somebody's saying the VA perfect example so the Veterans Administration was corrupt because it had sort of a centralized control how easily it was fixed watered office to fix but at least they could address the subject but by giving apparently veterans now have an option of getting private care if they would have waited too long for the Veterans Association administration the Veterans Administration so when you see some of the examples of where you can add a little little market pressure to the public option that's not exactly

[32:10]

public option that's not exactly socialism as it is the Veterans Administration with socialism when all the President had to do would say okay you veterans you can also use private stuff and you know so now you've got some competition in a sense I don't know yeah I'm not saying the Veterans Administration is is fixed but they at least try to address some of the problems and even if you say that the Veterans Administration is a good example of centralized power going wrong don't we have lots of examples of decentralized power going wrong take for example social media social media operates in a almost an entirely capitalist structure and it's a big freakin problem so did capitalism make social media and work really well well in a sense of it because the businesses are very robust they make a lot of money they employ a lot of people they develop technology so

[33:11]

lot of people they develop technology so in those ways all great
but they also created some real social problems as in nearly eliminating free speech effectively even though free speech is about governments not private companies the effect that it is pretty darn bad so when people argue that capitalism is good and socialism is bad that's really just - nothing's being compared because those are such vague concepts you really need to look at this specific you need to look at the specific likewise we were looking at healthcare it probably would be a bad idea to have the government making decisions about health care but would it be socialism if the government simply was one of the customers for health care because we could have an option where you could have the government health care and the government would be paying that insurance at the same time that

[34:12]

that insurance at the same time that people are using the public competitive market and they could be in the market at the same time would that be socialism so here's my here's my statement people are trying to win these socialism argument by by first of all saying socialism is you know Stalin or some other example from Venezuela etc I don't think you have as well this problem what socialism I realize that's an unpopular thing to say here let me let me ask you if you think that's the case I'm no expert on Venezuela but I'm watching that situation and it doesn't look to me that the problem with socialism it looked like the problem was the leaders it looked like you had a dictator problem am I wrong about that am I am I wrong that Venezuela's problem was a dictator now a dictator chose socialist

[35:12]

dictator now a dictator chose socialist policies etc which ruined everything but it wasn't the socialism that ruined it it was the dictator the dictator made no you know nothing would have worked with that dictator
somebody says god damn it Scott Venezuela has to be in the state it is because of socialism really well let me ask you this let's say Venezuela had an enlightened leader and that enlightened leader said well we can't go full socialism because it wouldn't work but what we will do is make sure all of you have good health care would that be the end of Venezuela do you think Venezuela could not have provided health care to its citizens and just kept everything else the same you know capitalist kind of capitalist businesses that said of course it could so when you say to be that that socialism ruin Venezuela that yes so dishonest

[36:14]

dishonest it's either uninformed or dishonest if I'm being blunt it's dishonest because there's no such thing as socialism there are lots of different things you can do within socialism the United States does a number on them and it has not destroyed the United States Venezuela likewise could have done some socialist things and they would still be a fine vibrant country with a great economy they did too many of the wrong things and they had a dictator and God knows whatever other problems but blaming it all on socialism is so simplistic that's really that's just a talking point from the news so I've said before that the news assigns you to Europeans and that we don't have independent things everybody here who reflexively says socialism ruined Venezuela you have been brainwashed that's it there is no there

[37:19]

brainwashed that's it there is no there is no logic to that thought and is a completely baseless irrational statement that socialism ruined Venezuela and I don't even know much about Venezuela but that much is obvious because socialism hasn't ruined most of the European countries who have a little bit of socialism I've seen people attended at lycée I actually agree with you on this and you see people are being a little bit hesitant to say that in public because when you hear me explain it are you mad that you've been told this socialism destroyed Venezuela is anybody actually mad that they've been told that and it's just so obviously not true because socialism isn't a thing it's a whole bunch of things and if they've done the right things at a few things they'd be fine just like the United States we did some socialist things and

[38:20]

States we did some socialist things and not we didn't go too far and we're fine so don't let yourself be fooled by that socialism versus bad socialism bad government killed Venezuela beginning and end of story bad government dictator that's it corruption and whatever things that that dictator allowed somebody saying define socialism which is my point exactly if you can to find it you don't have anything to say about all right I'm gonna take some questions I'm gonna open it up here because I promised I would let's see who looks interesting I'm only going to take questions from people who show their face and real name okay so let's see what Thomas has to say Thomas Thomas can you hear me Thomas Thomas hello do you have a question to us oh no

[39:24]

hello do you have a question to us oh no it's Steve but uh anyway yeah yeah my question is well actually I want to throw out a fact first and it's about health care and in the 60s health care was 5% of the GDP today it's 18% of course that adjusts for inflation you know in that it's in the GDP and my question is isn't there number enough an indication that
something is seriously wrong with that indication that things are seriously right the reason the primary reason they might be that health care is so much higher as a percentage of GDP than it used to be is we can do so many things so we have drugs we didn't used to have so in the old days you didn't have to spend money on drugs that didn't exist we had procedures that you can do

[40:26]

we had procedures that you can do operations that we've never thought of you know skimming devices that didn't exist yeah going from whatever you said 5% of GDP to 18% feels to me exactly what a healthy society should look like we should be inventing new expensive things that will come down in price over time but each time we come up with a new way to keep people healthy we always would choose a little extra expense to keep these extra people alive or or healthy especially since these extra people could be us but well you know I would kind of respond with this it seems to me that well for example I think ninety you know somewhere I read 97 percent of the top 100 selling drugs don't cure they only relieve symptoms things also that kind of concern me

[41:28]

things also that kind of concern me include a little confused about what the FDA requires to approve a drug above the placebo effect which seems to me it could be just a single-digit because my readings just says it has to be statistically significant I'm just wondering if you know I mean I understand your point about technology has improved but during that same period from the 60s to today the healthcare industry also had the huge improvement in computer technology so why do so that's right so working against us is a lack of price transparency and I think that the lack of price transparency all and the lack of competitive forces throughout the whole healthcare industry is what the administration is actually

[42:29]

is what the administration is actually working on directly so that that is what they're focusing on yeah which I support a hundred percent by the way I talked to another caller just keep things keep saying it's going thanks so much let's say let's bring someone else in let's go with no I'm not going with that let's go with Jacob and
when Jacobs on here we'll see what Jacob has to say hey Jacob Jacob are you there good how are you you have a question he said something kind of poignant he said where is that for the rural areas of our country and especially where we live the rural areas are there's no work no money and they're just falling into darkness and despair along with that comes Drugs and Crime and the strange fact is that the majority of the country's US Canada

[43:30]

the majority of the country's US Canada are rural there's only a couple cities right and all these people just they're running out of hope the authority concentrates where there's a very specific problem and this you know it's all a different dynamic dynamic once you get out of the city oh yes very a lot there you know I want to try to your question please do suppose it seems to me that we should be able to develop a Kint such that one or two people working together without a lot of tools could build a small single a single story structure that they could live in I can't imagine why we can't make you know essentially bricks that just fit together with a plan have a few different designs and so that you can just very easily run cable run plumbing and that and any person could do it just

[44:31]

and that and any person could do it just watching a watching youtube video for the work that you need to do that day and it says okay take these pipes that are labeled over there and put them together like you see on the video and that's all you're doing today it seems to me that you could get people to be able to build their own homes now here's here's the full idea let's take the blade authority but this there's some version of this that we're working with rural communities you have all this land that is either free or close to free because it's sort of worthless suppose it took you took these properties you've put it in government control which is easy to do because again it's free or foreclosed or close to free and then you say for each person who fits a certain profile they've got to apply for this they're going to get a free piece of land to build on and here's the fun part they get a second free piece of land next to it to build a income property in other words they can build a second home once they built

[45:31]

build a second home once they built their own home with their own hands the second one they can rent or sell so that everybody who gets two pieces of land next to each other because again the land is almost free because nobody wanted it they get one they can build on and one that they can turn into an income property that would make the cost of their building much lower supposed to mean that you could come up with kits where people could build their own homes with some exceptions such as you might need a backhoe to come in and move some dirt around so there might be some site prep and sewage and stuff like that that has to be done by you know big companies but it seems to be that you could put up a wall you could probably figure out a way to to raise a roof with just two people and pulleys and some platforms certainly you could figure out plumbing that you don't have to be a trained plumber to do you could have inspectors who are checking in the each step to make sure they

[46:32]

make sure they build things right and you know you've done it right yeah so people are telling me those Sears sold these homes before et cetera but I'm pretty sure you could build a model where you would take you basically use the pioneering instinct you would get people who can build their own homes and then they would have a reason to want that home in good shape because it's next to their income property they can build that next mm-hmm yeah and it's not just a place to live in the rural areas you're right that there is an economic element absolutely because they just don't have the jobs or the opportunity etcetera so I like that idea of having one element which is your home to live in the other which is your income element yeah we're doing manicures or hair or something else you know while you're building it maybe use that as your place of businesses or so I think there are models in which people can sort of work their way into better

[47:34]

can sort of work their way into better situations but they have not been developed a lot of people are saying you see your Sears trying to get homes which they did it's been tried in other countries and didn't work everything that I've seen was a very bad try and I always warn people don't compare to the bad try to what a good try could look like right the the airplane didn't work until the airplane worked and everything before the Wright brothers was it was a disaster yeah then it just got better after that so I would say that the idea of a kit home was poorly done in the past but does not predict what you could do in the future if you had a better better you know block design I don't think we've decided them right yet all right thank you for the question take care you'll move on to one more let's do one more question with spring oh really there's not a single woman who wants to answer the question I was trying to mix it up but I'm gonna go with Tom I think

[48:36]

it up but I'm gonna go with Tom I think no not Tom let's see who we've got here
Tom how are you on the healthcare stuff especially so I own a small healthcare company myself and we work with almost all entirely private insurers I also went to business school I did a double degree thing out of UCLA and the National University of Singapore I spent a lot of time living overseas and I would ask if you or maybe some of the other viewers here have a lot of knowledge about Singapore's healthcare system actually Michael malleus talks about this in his new book where it's a very much a public-private partnership Singapore has aspects that are very socialist in some ways and obviously some ways even totalitarian but it's also hyper capitalist in many ways as well so I'm kind of curious if you've looked into that or maybe some of the other guests here yeah if what you're saying is some kind of government

[49:37]

saying is some kind of government probably a government safety net but they make sure there's a lot of competitive elements within the market that's what you're saying essentially this is that the big picture not only that yes but also prices for procedures and drugs are clearly posted I've used the healthcare system there as a foreigner as a student where for an emergent for an urgent situation that I that I had and what would have cost probably several thousand dollars cost me about 1970 semi Singapore dollars - so these are minor things and but also for the big ones too and they've exceptionally low taxes but also the standard of living is very very high and cost of living is very high as well so that's something to think about but Singapore's it's my second favorite country in the world I think you guys should take a look at it can we take you off now but thank you for that I like the idea and follow me Scott okay so we

[50:42]

the idea and follow me Scott okay so we always talked about the current healthcare system versus a single-payer and it seems to me the obvious the the most obvious productive place to be it would be neither of those place you wouldn't want a single pair for all the obvious reasons our current system is not getting every covered everyone covered so that doesn't work for all the obvious reasons there's probably something where the I'm just gonna get rid of all the people who say that mic doesn't work there's probably there's probably something that makes the government just the biggest customer and there's still plenty of competition so I think that's where it's going to end up all right that's all for now I will talk to you later